Robert G. Kaufman: What Obama should have told Putin

In this handout image provided by Host Photo Agency, Russian President Vladimir Putin greets U.S. President Barack Obama at the G20 summit on Sept. 5, 2013 in St. Petersburg, Russia. GETTY IMAGES

On Sept. 6, President Barack Obama met privately with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in St. Petersburg. Tensions have heightened between Russia and the United States on a wide range of issues, including Obama’s determination to strike Syria in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons. Here is what the President should have told Putin:

Vladimir, relations between our countries have deteriorated. When I became president, I invested great hopes in resetting relations with Russia on a more constructive course, assuming we shared many interests in common. I expected you would react positively to my conciliatory gestures of canceling the deployment of missile defense in central Europe and reaching an arms-control treaty highly favorable to Russia. I expected you would work closely with me – bilaterally and at the United Nations – to prevent the rogue regime of Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. I expected Russia would deplore and restrain the ferocity of the Assad regime’s unremitting war against its own people.

Instead, Vladimir, you have dashed my expectations: blocking any effective action against Iran and backing Assad unstintingly. Your scheme to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control does not fool me. It is a ruse, designed to shield Assad from the consequences of using these weapons and to facilitate his victory over the rebels. We both know, Vladimir, that the United Nations has a dismal record reaching and enforcing effective arms control agreements.

I have no regrets about first trying to engage Russia. Giving the benefit of the doubt is the American way. Yet Russia has now reached the limits of my forbearance. Vladimir, do not confuse my goodwill for weakness. On my watch, the United States will not permit Russia to subvert effective action to prevent Iran going nuclear. Nor will you thwart my plans to punish Assad for defying my red line on chemical weapons.

Russian adventurism in the Middle East arises from a deeper problem you epitomize, Vladimir. On your watch, Russia has become increasingly corrupt, repressive, aggressive and expansionist – a menace to its neighbors; a burden to the Russian people. In retrospect, I should have taken more seriously your lament about the demise of the Soviet Union being a great tragedy. That is outrageous. The Soviet Union was indeed an evil empire that murdered millions, enslaved millions more and posed an existential threat to freedom everywhere. For all its problems since the Cold War ended in victory for the West, Central Europe is now more free, more prosperous, more stable and more hopeful than under Soviet tyranny or Czarist domination. The U.S. and its NATO allies intend to keep it that way.

Early in my administration, Vladimir, I did not appreciate fully the indispensability of American power or the virtues of American exceptionalism. I do now. My road to Damascus disabused me of the myth of multilateralism as a substitute for American power. America need not apologize for its pivotal role during the Cold War defending freedom in Western Europe, helping to liberate Eastern Europe, and contributing enormously to the demise of the Evil Empire. Nor do I apologize now for warning you that the U.S. will not countenance your evident intention of reviving some version of an autocratic Czarist empire, encompassing the successor states to the Soviet Union and much of East Central Europe. Understand, Vladimir, that the United States possesses in abundance the fortitude and the capability to foil Russian imperial ambitions.

Understand, too, that Ukraine is among the nations of Europe the United States will deter Russia from dominating. A country of 48 million almost the size of Texas, with ample resources and a prime strategic location, Ukraine suffered grievously under the Czars and catastrophically under the Soviet Union. As Robert Conquest recounts in his magisterial Harvest of Sorrow, the terror-famine that Stalin inflicted on Ukraine during the 1930’s resulted in the death of millions. Ukrainians rightly celebrate the collapse of the Soviet Union. Correspondingly, enlightened Ukrainian statesmen such as Vitaly Klitschko strive to integrate an independent Ukraine into the democratic West.

Vladimir, I deplore your insidious campaign to intimidate Ukraine from signing an economic agreement with the E.U. that would bolster the pro-Western elements in Ukrainian politics. Ukrainians can expect my unswerving support, not only for this endeavor, but for membership in NATO once Ukraine firmly establishes reliable democratic institutions and procedures.

The United States desires cooperation with Russia, not confrontation. So choose wisely. Take this historic opportunity, Vladimir, to abandon your imperial ambitions. Put Russia on a constructive path to become decent, democratic, prosperous and a good neighbor. Avoid the mistakes of your Czarist and Soviet predecessors. Or you will lose, just as they did.

Robert G. Kaufman is a professor of public policy at Pepperdine University.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com.
Please provide your name, city and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published).
Letters of about 200 words or videos of 30-seconds
each will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.